Activist cleared of libelling Thai PM family firm

BANGKOK, March 15 (Reuters) A Thai court cleared media activist Supinya Klangnarong today of criminal libel of the business empire founded by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Shin Corp's civil libel case against Supinya, claiming 400 million baht (dollars) in compensation for suggesting it was a major beneficiary of government policies, was now likely to be dropped, her lawyer said.

''The court ruled that all the defendants were not guilty,'' a judge said reading the verdict of the Bangkok Criminal Court.

Supinya's opinion expressed at a seminar was made in good faith and did not insult Shin Corp, he said.

''It was an expression of opinion based on information gathered from her research and others.'' Shin Corp accused Supinya, 32, of criminal libel, which could have landed her in jail, by suggesting in a 2003 newspaper article that government policies were tailored to benefit the company.

The Thai Post newspaper, which published the article before Thaksin's relatives sold their controlling interest in Shin Corp in January, was also cleared in the case, which rights groups condemned as a threat to press freedom.

Thaksin said one of the reasons for the dollars tax-free sale -- which outraged Bangkok's middle classes and fuelled an extra-parliamentary campaign to oust him -- was to end charges of conflict of interests.

The newspaper and its editors were cleared because they published her statement without injecting any of their own comments, the court said.

A tearful Supinya said she was happy to be free again after three years of the trial and vowed to fight on for media reform.

''This is the Thai public's victory, not only my own personal victory because it is about the interest of the Thai public,'' she told reporters as supporters waited to give her flowers.

The ruling was in line with the constitution's guarantee of freedom of expression, she said.

Shin, Thailand's seventh largest listed firm, owns 42 percent of Shin Satellite, which operates IPSTAR, the world's largest broadband satellite, and 53 percent of ITV PCL, which runs Thailand's third most popular television channel.

Following the sale by Thaksin's relatives and a tender offer, Singapore state investment firm Temasek and its subsidiaries own more than 96 percent of Shin shares in a takeover which cost it dollars.

REUTERS HS BST1634